There is Nothing Wrong With You (or Me!)

I am sorry to say that probably every single day in recent history I have gone to bed saying something along the lines of, "I suck at life." I have felt like a failure in many areas, even though I could also make a very long list of excellent, well-done, important, caring, compassionate things I have done. why is it that we treat ourselves so poorly? I would never treat someone else with as little regard as I sometimes treat myself. (sigh)

Yesterday my husband hugged me and told me I was perfect, which I found ironic considering that if anyone knows my many faults, it's him. After 19 years he has pretty much seen it all.

I came across this video today and just loved it. (if you double click on the video you can watch it in it's full, wide-screen glory, which will be better than having it cut off at the side like it may do for you here on this page) Very encouraging. And I purchased a piece of her art which I am looking forward to displaying in my home. Inspirational!



Here is a photo of the art I bought:



It reminded me of me and my daughter, but felt like an important reminder in several ways. I already know where I want to put it. (I think....)

A Good Laugh

Everybody

Happy is the heart that still feels pain
Darkness drains and light will come again
Swing open your chest and let it in
Just let the love, love, love begin

12 Days of Christmas for the Large Family

Time for More Monday Music!

And this ukulele version is pretty fun too!

Funk = The Cure for Mondays

New song from Steven Curtis Chapman

Our House (love this song!)

Loved This

I loved this new video from Taylor Swift. Made me think of my own awesome mom, as well as all of the memories I'm making with my children each day.

Loved This Video

Get Your Tissues and Take 9 minutes for this

Do you know that God loves you a whole bunch?

If Today Was Your Last Day

I've been rocking at Ichthus!

I've looked forward to taking my kids to Ichthus for years, and I finally got to do it! I went with our youth group (and my 2 teens) Thursday and Friday as a chaperone for the girls. I always love a good opportunity to boogie and re-live my teenagerhood, so this was right up my alley. Some of the highlights:

My daughter and I enjoyed an indie group called The Great Transparency. Lots of fun, full of personality, and good music.

Thursday night we saw Hawk Nelson and Family Force 5. Both were lots of fun.

Hawk Nelson: Fun Young Canuks!

Here's some FF5 fun for you: UGLY PEOPLE, PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN (mine were up! up! up!)



We saw a very interesting group, The Psalters, do a drum circle. This group is like a combination of Rastafarian-gypsy-hobo-somethingorother. They play a lot of different types of ethnic styles of praise music. Very cool, different, interesting, and I enjoyed them. You can listen to some of their tunes here.

Kutless gave a great performance. Really enjoyed it! I also saw Delirious and Skillet, both of which I didn't love that much, so went on to some other stuff.

Had a blast with a friend doing our rapper hand stuff to GRITS (and after that you just have to talk to each other like, "Where you be at?" and stuff like that....). Plenty of group dancing too. (to the left! to the left!.....to the right! to the right!.....move it back now......)

My husband and I saw Israel Houghton and the New Breed last night and that was really fun worship music. While we were waiting for them to set up the stage we got to do the Cha Cha Slide with the crowd too. :) I love to Cha Cha....


I enjoyed Alabaster Box, whom I had never heard of before. I really enjoyed it that they had great music with a clear, encouraging spiritual message. Lots of energy, too!

On our way out of the grounds my husband and I saw (and heard) the throbbing music from the techno stage, and it drew us right in. We had a lot of fun dancing, and --oh! how I love teenagers! They have so much ENERGY (still jumping and dancing after midnight after 3 whole days of the same), and I love seeing the trust they give (and keep) when they crowd surf and just cut loose with dancing. I see so many wonderful, good, encouraging things in the teens I get to be around. They make me believe that good things are in store for the world. :)

Boys at the Creek--this time...jumping!

Let Freedom Ring

One of the most powerful speeches in history. It gives me chills every time I hear it.

"...So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up... live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tenneessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring,

And when this happens,and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Take 5 minutes to watch this

Have you seen this clever video to help guys stay out of the doghouse this holiday season? Go! Laugh! Share.

My Son the Rock Star

My 15 year old son has been teaching himself to play both bass and electric guitar for about a year now. Last night we got to watch him play with a group of friends at the county fair. These boys have only been practicing together for a couple of weeks, so it was pretty cool that they could pull together a decent performance in that amount of time.

The sound equipment at the fair really stunk, so it mostly sounded like a bunch of noise (for the record, they are playing Youth Gone Wild by skid Row) . It was a real blast to watch my kid play on stage and be so comfortable in a performance situation. He's the one closest to the camera, with black t shirt and tan shorts. My kid! My kid! What a blast!

Rainy Day in Fiji

An online friend of mine is a missionary in Fiji. This video shows her adorable children enjoying their backyard mud slide!

This movie actually made me cry this morning. I think it was just the beauty of the children having such pure delight, and the fact that their mom caught it all on camera....

Watch it!

Funny For You

I always found it funny that Christians pray for food to be blessed to their bodies, even when they are eating total junk. Tim Hawkins has a funny comedy shtick about this. This video takes a little while to load up, but totally cracked us up.


I also thought this was was hilarious. My kids and I were about doubled over laughing over this one: